The Other Act of True Love
by ptahaegyptus2
Summary: What if Hans had not done the heel-turn in the movie? My take on a darker alternative ending of the movie without anyone getting dark. Definitely a path Disney wouldn't take.


"S-she froze my heart," Anna stammered to Hans as she shivered, "A-and only an act of t-t-true love can save me."

"A true love's kiss!" Hans immediately divined the reason why Anna begged him to kiss her the moment she was brought into the room.

He leaned in, and Anna closed her eyes.

Their lips touched, and Hans poured all the love he could muster into that kiss, despite the icy coldness and the crackling of the frost forming on Anna's lips as his own broke the flakes. He could feel her shake, but wasn't sure if it was from the cold or from the removal of Elsa's terrible magic that was killing her.

He pulled back, smiling and gazing at her, "Is it working?"

Her look of love and happiness slowly gave way to fear, her eyes widening, "N-n-No! It isn't! Nothing is happening!"

"Once should work! Should we do it again?" Hans asked desperately.

"Oh, no!" Anna began to weep. Hans tried to hug her to comfort her, but she pushed him away, "I-I thought w-w-what we had was t-t-true love!" she cried.

"I did too! I guess your sister was right!"

"L-like she w-was when she t-told me to leave!"

Hans blinked, "What? Where?"

"At h-h-er Ice Palace! She t-t-told me to l-leave, but I-I kept pushing h-h-her to c-come with me, and she kept s-s-saying I had t-t-to leave because s-she would hurt me!"

"Wait! You mean you pushed her like you did at the Coronation party?"

"Ohhhh!" Anna moaned, "It was an ac-c-cident! S-she d-didn't m-mean it!"

"Well, you made it sound as if she hated you and struck you because her heart was frozen!"

"N-No she d-didn't!" Anna buried her face in her hands, "O-oh now I'm g-g-gonna die f-from my own s-stupidity!"

Hans looked at her, feeling helpless, not knowing what to do. He glanced out the window and winced as he realized the storm was getting worse, just as Elsa had said.

Then it hit him.

Someone DID know.

Someone who had ALWAYS been right during this entire disaster.

Hans reached under the sofa on which Anna was sitting and pulled it closer to the fire, "Keep warm!" he said, then stood up and walked to the door.

"W-Where are you going?" Anna rose up stiffly and turned to gaze at him fearfully, not wanting to die alone.

"To see a wiser person that both of us." Hans said grimly. He left the room, waving, "You! Bring more blankets! Tend to Princess Anna! Keep her..."

Anna shook, both from fear and from the cold as Hans' voice dimmed as he walked down the hall, yelling commands to the staff to take care of her. She turned to the fire, put her hands to her face again, and cried.

* * *

Elsa gazed with fear, bitterness, sadness, and regret at the growing storm outside. Her heart twisted painfully as she thought of the people, her people, suffering from her fear and ignorance.

She had never intended this. She had devoted her entire life up to to now to be the best queen Arendelle would ever have. She never met her subjects, but she did watch them from her study room off of her bedroom, which afforded a view of the bridge, the pier, and the dockside marketplace, trying to live among them from a distance, to discern their problems and their hopes for the future.

That **this **would be their future...

"Ohhhhh!" she closed her eyes, the moan wrenched from the painful pit under her breastbone.

She gasped and turned at the sound of the key in the prison door.

It was Hans. He came in, put the lamp beside the door, and turned to her, reaching into his pocket.

A knife?

She whimpered and pulled back, tugging at the chains.

He pulled a key out of his pocket.

"You were right." he said sadly, approaching her, holding the key out, "it wasn't true love."

"What?" she breathed, watching as he put the key into one cuff, then the other, releasing her from the shackles.

"Before you go." he turned and headed to the door, picking up the lamp, "I think you should see someone." he turned to her, "Someone special to both of us."

She gasped, "Anna?"

His eyes darted to the window, where the raging winds tearing at the castle and howling like a thousand wolves outside the window suddenly died down to a whisper.

* * *

Gerda applied a hot towel to Anna's forehead, sighing and almost crying.

"Oh G-gerda! I-I'm so scared!" Anna sobbed, gazing into the eyes of her faithful servant and friend.

Gerda hugged the girl she had raised from birth, trying even harder to be brave for her, and definitely not succeeding.

The door to the study room opened to the rustle of cloth from a floor-length dress.

"Ohhhh ANNA!"

"E-E-Elsa?"

Elsa rushed around to the front of the couch, saw Anna's condition, and fell to her knees on the floor, "No! Oh please NO!" she groaned, alternately reaching out to Anna, then pulling back from fear to wring her hands in front of her mouth, shaking her head, "Oh God please no!"

It took all she could muster, but Anna reached out, grabbed Elsa's wrists, and pulled her hands to her lips, pressing her kiss against the backs of her dear, grieving sister's fingers, "H-Hey!" she grinned, "You c-can't hurt me any m-m-more than you already h-have, huh?"

Elsa broke into a full, soul wrenching cry, embracing her sister for the first time since she had embraced her in the same state, struck by her own magic and dying by her own hands, 13 years ago.

"You w-w-were right." Anna sobbed, "I don't know anyt-t-thing about true l-love!"

Although she was crying, Elsa squeezed off a couple of laughs, "Where did THAT come from?"

"Kristoff, the m-man you saw in the ice castle, w-was raised by trolls! He-"

"TROLLS?" Elsa gasped, staring at Anna, "Trolls? Start out looking like regular rocks, then roll around and pop open?"

"Y-yeah! He asked for g-g-grand-pabbie, the wisest, to t-take the magic away, b-b-but he couldn't because it w-w-was in my h-h-h-heart, not my head."

It was too long a story for Elsa to tell of that journey to the Valley of Living Rock years ago: She was counting the evaporating seconds in her mind. She just nodded, encouraging Anna to continue.

_"There is so little time left..."_ she thought.

"He said t-t-that only an act of true l-love could thaw m-my frozen heart! They thought it would b-be a t-t-true love's k-kiss, so I came back h-h-here to have Hans kiss me."

Elsa, despite the dire circumstances, smiled her lop-sided grin at Anna, shaking her head slightly while caressing the hair on her head, "Oh Anna! Life isn't that simple!"

Anna rolled her eyes, despite her pain, then gazed at Elsa, "Oh E-Elsa! W-what is t-true love?"

"True love, Anna", Elsa said, looking at her sister lovingly, still stroking her hair, "is when you put the needs of others before your own."

"Oh Elsa! Y-you've been loving m-me all t-this time, haven't y-y-you?" Anna sighed, reaching out to pat her sister's shoulder.

Elsa moved her hand to cover Anna's, "Yeah." she smiled, then she rolled her eyes, "But a kiss from me isn't going to help!"

They gazed for a few moments into each other's eyes, each regretting the lost years, when another strand of Anna's hair froze white, making Elsa's eyes go wide.

She looked off to the side for a few moments, swallowed, and closed her eyes, pursing her lips.

Then she opened them, a look of resigned determination on her face.

She arose to her feet, turned, and went to the door.

"E-Elsa? ELSA?" Anna turned, suddenly scared again, rising from the couch.

Elsa turned from the door, "Gerda."

Gerda jumped from startlement, staring at Elsa, not believing the tone of voice she was hearing, that allowed only one response.

"Yes, your Majesty?"

"Keep Anna in here. Keep her near the fire. I need as much time as you can give her."

"ELSA! ELSA!" Anna screamed, rolling onto the floor and clawing her way to the closing door, collapsing and crying when Elsa locked it behind her, "ELSA NOOO!"

"Where is the council?" Elsa asked, not giving a clue as to the turmoil in her as she heard her sister through the door.

Hans looked behind him at the locked door, "Your Majesty?"

"The council, running Arendelle in my absence. Where is it?"

"Anna put me in charge, with the diplomats giving me advice. They're in the throne room."

Elsa sighed and headed for the double doors.

"Your Majesty?" Hans asked.

"What?" She didn't pause.

"You're not leaving Anna there to die, are you?"

Elsa threw Hans a glance and sighed, "Nobody ever understood me, did they?" she asked, more to herself than anyone else, "Just as well..." she barged through the double doors.

"AAAHHHHH! THERE SHE IS!" the Duke of Weselton looked around wildly for his guards, and settled for jumping behind the ample bulk of the Irish Ambassador, "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" he shrieked.

Elsa spared him a contemptuous glance, looking at the ambassadors, "In the event that Anna does not survive, I appoint my Uncle in Law, the King of Corona, to determine the proper heir from among my father's cousins." she stated, drawing herself up as if she was wearing her coronation dress. She turned and glided out through the far doors and up the stairs to the residence floor.

"You're not going to let her go, are you?" The Duke demanded.

"I repeat, Princess Anna left me in charge until she returns. She's still in the room we were in, freezing solid from an accidental strike of Queen Elsa's magic to her heart. She thought a kiss from me would cure her, but it did not." he said regretfully, "I felt it necessary to tell the Queen of her sister's state. She went immediately to see Princess Anna, and was quite grief-stricken at what she had done to her."

The Duke snorted, "We need to do something or we will all die along with the Princess!"

"We will do nothing without knowing the consequences of our actions!" Hans replied.

"We know the consequences of doing nothing!" The Duke roared back.

They stood silent for ten seconds, glaring at each other, breathing heavily, when the French Ambassador turned his head, "What's that?"

"What?"

"That noise! Like someone falling down the stairs!"

At that moment, the door burst open and Anna stumbled in, having rammed them open with her shoulder. She caught herself and stood up, "Where. Is. My. Sister?" She demanded, Gerda right behind her.

"Anna! Your hair! Its got less white!" Hans said happily.

"Elsa's done something! I started recovering just now! Where is she?" Anna repeated, another lock of hair going from white to strawberry-red.

"She came through here, then went upstairs." The Spanish Ambassador said.

Anna headed to the doors on the other side of the room, flung them open, then stopped and screamed "ELSA!"

Hans gasped as he saw Elsa on the floor at the foot of the stairs, struggling to get up, as if she had tripped on her ice dress or train, and had fallen down the steps. Except that her movements seemed clumsier and exaggerated. He followed Anna, who had rushed to Elsa's side.

"Who is that?" Elsa asked unsteadily, turning her head in Anna's direction, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Anna! I'm right here Elsa!" Anna said happily as she knelt beside her sister, "I don't know what you did, but I stopped getting colder and warmed back up! My hair is returning back to its normal color and-" Anna stared, "Elsa...are...are you okay?"

Elsa was trying to get up, but instead her arm gave way as it slipped on the melt-water from her disintegrating ice cape, spinning her around onto her back. Her head landed on Anna's lap. She grabbed behind her, "Who is that?" she asked again.

"OH NO!"

Anna turned around at Kai's voice, and stuffed her mitten into her mouth to suppress a scream.

He was holding a long clay vial, fired to a red color, uncorked and empty. It was the same one given to her when she turned sixteen, and which she had flung away when told that its purpose was "as a last resort."

"Hemlock." Kai said, voice breaking, "she must have dropped it when she stumbled from its effects."

"Doesn't matter!" Elsa breathed, clawing at Anna as the Ambassadors pulled their coats off to cover her as her ice dress began falling off her body in irregular sheets, "Please, tell Anna I am sorry and that I love her. And-" she swallowed, staring unseeing at the ceiling, "-tell Prince Hans to...to take care of my sister. Please-"

She stopped making sounds, but her thin red lips quivered, as if she was still speaking.

Then they stopped.

The Snow Queen fell asleep, never to awaken in this world, as the very last white strand of her sister's hair, put there thirteen years ago, turned from white to red, and the surface of the fjord turned from white to blue.

* * *

**Because we know Elsa is...awesome.**


End file.
